Guest Blog: Professor Angela Crack (HSS) Our next public engagement network meeting will be led by Professor Angela Crack, discussing pracademic engagement – the work of academics deeply immersed in practice contexts, seeking to achieve change through engagement. This blog gives some detail on what pracademic engagement is, some of the struggles, and why its important.

‘Pracademics’ – it’s a clunky portmanteau word, but there’s a large community of researchers who feel that it captures an essential part of their identity, but who tend to be disadvantaged by the low profile of their work. ‘Pracademic’ describes individuals who bridge the gap between scholarship and action to promote meaningful social change. I am a Steering Group member of the Pracademic Development Initiative, which is an international collaboration dedicated to supporting pracademic careers and sharing knowledge to enhance impact. Through surveys of pracademics and hosting networking activities, we have uncovered important insights about the challenges that these hybrid actors face, and the huge social value of their work.

Too often, academics and practitioners operate in silos. Research is produced and published, and policies are written and implemented. However, those who work at the intersection of academia and practice offer a unique and essential perspective. For example, researchers who are embedded in frontline health services, or environmental scientists shaping community resilience strategies. Pracademics embody a dual identity that has the potential to unlock deeper impact and innovation.

Pracademics contribute in ways that are distinct from either scholars or practitioners alone. They inform research and teaching within universities with insights from the field. In practice settings, they maintain a commitment to evidence and the ‘long view’ encouraged by academic training. They act as translators and integrators. They apply research-based insights and further shape these ideas through interaction in the ‘real world’.

This kind of integrative expertise is the wellspring of social change. The challenges we face in today’s world do not fit neatly within disciplinary boundaries, whether it be inequality, public health, climate change or digital inclusion. These are challenges that require a willingness to traverse fields of study and institutional settings, and pracademics excel in these kinds of skills.

However, pracademics tend to have low visibility despite their value. Academia tends to reward conventional research outputs (albeit in the UK, REF has helped to lift the profile of engagement and impact work). Practitioners tend to view academics as occupying an ‘ivory tower’ far removed from their realities. As a result, those navigating both spaces can find themselves feeling ‘homeless’ (to quote a common term used by our survey respondents).

The Pracademic Development Initiative recently published a Special Issue of Development in Practice that showcased the work of pracademics around the world and reflected on the common challenges described by our contributors. In our introduction article, we argued that there is a need for universities and research funders across the world to facilitate pracademic career pathways. This includes encouraging career flexibility, valuing different forms of knowledge production and building institutional incentives that support engagement with society. This also means creating room for multiple trajectories, not only for staff who blend research and applied work, but also for students who move between study and social action throughout their careers.

Perhaps you recognise yourself in the word pracademic. If you would like to follow updates about our initiative, please email pracademia.world@gmail.com. To find out more about the pracademic engagement, book onto our next public engagement network session here.

Other than Angela, the Pracademic Development Initiative Steering Group consists of Willem Elbers (Radboud University, Netherlands) Alan Fowler (Wits Business School, South Africa), Faina Diola (University of the Phillippines), Ines Pousadela (Universidad ORT Uruguay).